Petition Supports LGTBQ Students In Ocean City After Protest

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Following the news that the Ocean City School District adopted a new and revised sex education curriculum, more than 100 people took to a local park for a protest and political rally, according to reports.

Over the past few months, the 2020 Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Standards have drawn attention and controversy among parents who believe that the subject matter, including teaching younger children proper names and identification of genitals and gender differences, to be inappropriate for students. You can find the standards online here.

On Sept. 8, a group gathered at Mark Soifer Park to protest the standards, emphasizing the LGBTQ education aspect, according to the Ocean City Sentinel.

Those present included three Board of Education candidates: Robin Shaffer, Catherine Panico and Liz Nicoletti, along with Rev. Gregory Quinlan, president and executive director of The Center for Garden State Families in Parsippany, the outlet reported.

According to the report, Quinlan gave a speech that "condemned homosexuality" and claimed that these programs are "grooming" children. He said they were indoctrinating children into being gay or transgender, the report said.

"It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve in Eden," Quinlan reportedly said, according to the outlet.

"No one is born gay," he told the crowd, the outlet said.

Shaffer called Gov. Phil Murphy an "extremist" and said the standards were "radical ideology," OCNJ Daily reported.

At a City Council meeting that same night, the Council supported the Parents Bill of Rights, which would provide parents with more information about what students learn in school and give them greater control over it.

Following the rally, Ocean City High School alumni created a Change.org petition titled "LGBTQ STUDENTS BELONG AT OCHS."

The petition says that protesters sent a message that LGTBQ students are not welcome in Ocean City.

"Bluntly, they believe gay & trans people, students should be shunned from our schools and Ocean City itself," the petition reads.

The petition, which has nearly 4,000 signatures as of Thursday, affirms that LGBTQ students belong.

"We deserve recognition - we deserve, and are entitled to, a spot in Ocean City," it reads. "Our plentiful history deserves to be taught in our classes, and our health needs deserve to be acknowledged in health classes."

Protestors shared dangerous and false claims, the petition says. "Whether intentionally or not, they are seeking higher suicide rates among LGBT students. They are seeking to shun us from society. They are seeking to turn back the clock to a time when gay & trans people were subjugated under the same "pedophile", or "groomer" charge."

"I will never understand people who use their own religion as an excuse to discriminate against others, when Jesus or any other figure is meant to accept all those that they have put on this earth," one petition signer commented.

"This isn't just a few parents," another signer shared. "The OCHS administration actively allows homophobia and discrimination to occur at this school and does nothing to stop it. This school will never be accepting of queer students. "

"I was a transgender student at OCHS, and I have experienced hatred from faculty and staff," another said. "Their bigotry did not change my identity, but only proved that our school systems did not care about their students well-being."

"Enough. As a community, Ocean City must come together and unequivocally declare QUEER KIDS BELONG HERE," the petition reads.